{Spring Break} Chocolate, With a Side of History

After recovering a bit from our FULL day in New York City (which translated to about a 20 hour day for me, start to finish), we popped in to visit my grandmother, Grandma L...

She wears every single one of her 98 years well...

After grabbing lunch, we made the short, half hour, trip over to Hershey (see last year's visit here) for a visit to Hershey's Chocolate World...

What I love most about this place is that while there are plenty of "ticketed" options, we don't spend a dime when we go ~ it is a great place to entertain the little ones for a couple of hours for FREE.  We generally take the factory tour multiple times ~ it is an entertaining ride (with singing cows) that takes you through the "Hershey's Factory" where you learn how chocolate is made, and then developed into different products. 

{M likes to "moo" along with the cows!}

At the end, everyone gets a free piece of chocolate.  Even if you tell them, "Hey, I've already been through seventeen a few times.", the workers who hand out the candy always seem to answer with an energetic, "We don't care.  You can have as many pieces as you'd like.  It's Hershey!"

After a few gazillion tours of the factory, we always try our hand at packaging our own kisses...  Again, the packaging "experience" is absolutely free, though you are given the option to purchase the kisses that you package at the end...

I just loved the "disco shake"...

After our Hershey "experience", we headed down to Gettysburg and explored the Museum & Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park...

before bidding farewell to Honest Abe...

Hubby will want to come back with us & do the full battlefield tour, I'm sure...

An interesting story about Gettysburg...  My great-great-great grandfather, from Pennsylvania, fought as a soldier in the Union army.  At my rehearsal dinner, almost 10 years ago, my mom's brother, Uncle K, toasted an unnamed soldier from the Confederate army, because that grandfather of mine didn't fight at Gettysburg due to the fact that he had been wounded by a soldier from South Carolina.  If it weren't for that soldier, my grandfather likely would've died at Gettysburg and not come back home to father my great-great grandfather, Sherman Perry Murtland...  Yes, having been born and raised in the south myself, and namely born in Atlanta (and actually baptized by a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee!), it is hard for me to swallow that my great-great grandfather was named after General Sherman!  So, interesting to fast-forward many, many, many years ahead to me marrying a boy from South Carolina and settling down there myself!

More Spring Break 2013 Fun

New York City